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Farming union calls for fairer milk prices
- Credit: Archant
Farmers should receive greater returns for their milk production, according to the National Farmers’ Union – and a North Somerset farmer believes supermarkets and processors are to blame for the issues in the market.
Alistair Mead, managing director of Puxton Park, said: “They have used the world market price as the problem to push milk prices down. That’s not really helpful when we have people needing fresh milk here. We should be worried about the British market.”
Mr Mead’s comments come after NFU South West chairman Andrew Branton called on processors to pay farmers more.
He said: “Processors must do everything possible to pass on any increased returns from the market to avoid a greater loss of production than absolutely necessary.
“We are now going into a period where production costs are beginning to rise for reasons outside farmers’ control.”
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The NFU claims the number of milk farmers in Britain has halved over the past decade and Mr Mead said if trends continue, his family may have to consider cutting their milk production.
He revealed: “It’s really hard, as a farming family we’d never want to sell our milking herd but there’s only so much we can take.”
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- Elon Musk has tweeted that Tesla will allow its customers to buy some merchandise with Dogecoin.
- The price of Dogecoin (DOGE) cryptocurrency jumped 30 per cent to US$ 0.21 after Elon Musk’s announcement.
- Earlier this year, the cryptocurrency market had crashed after Mr Musk announced that Tesla won’t accept Bitcoin.
The price of Dogecoin (DOGE) cryptocurrency jumped 30 per cent to US$ 0.21 despite the cryptocurrency market extending its losses on Tuesday, December 14.
The surge in Dogecoin prices came as Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) boss Elon Musk said that his company will accept the cryptocurrency for its merchandise on a trial basis.
Taking to micro-blogging website Twitter, Mr Musk tweeted that Tesla will allow its customers to buy some merchandise with Dogecoin and then see how this decision goes.
Apart from selling its famous self-driving electric vehicles (EVs), Tesla sells merchandise and offers products like a belt buckle, mini models of its cars, and apparel among other things.
Can Tesla revive the sinking crypto market?
If we look at the previous history of Elon Musk and the cryptocurrency industry, you will know that the man is capable of moving the markets.
In May this year, the cryptocurrency market had crashed after the Tesla chief had said that the company is suspending purchases with Bitcoin.
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Mr Musk had expressed concerns over Bitcoin's negative impact on the environment as the crypto mining operations involve high energy consumption. After the announcement, the world's oldest cryptocurrency had immediately declined as much as 15 per cent.
Not only Bitcoin, but almost all the major cryptocurrencies had also crashed after the announcement. Now, as Mr Musk has announced that he is ready to accept Dogecoin for Tesla merchandise, it is expected that not only Dogecoin's price will increase, but the entire crypto market may get a revival soon.
In the last 24 hours, the market capitalization of the crypto industry had declined to US$ 2.13 trillion. However, at the time of writing, the global market cap had surged a little to US$ 2.16 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap data.
At 7 AM EST, Bitcoin was trading at US$ 47,627.93 per token after declining to US$ 45,788 apiece in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, Ether was down 4.4 per cent to US$ 3,840.82.
It would be worth keeping an eye if the declining cryptocurrencies get a boost from Tesla’s decision of accepting Dogecoin for its merchandise.

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Just a day after websites posted Google’s decision to block Windows Phone users from using Google Maps on their devices, Google issued a statement (via TNW)..
If you have a Windows Phone and try to access maps.google.com, you might end up being re-directed to Google search page. Google responded to Gizmodo saying..
Check out the apps sales from Microsoft Windows Phone store. They are at USD0.99 each. They are on offer till 31st December. So, remember to purchase them before the dateline. BTW, I checked and found that the discount is for US only. For Singapore, it is still at usual (high) price.
For those people with the spanking new Windows Phone 8, here is something you might already notice. Google hates Microsoft Windows Phone 8 or vice-versa. This..
Nokia and Microsoft are holding a joint press conference on the 5th of September 2012 in New York. Based on the invite I saw, it looks like Windows Phone 8..
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Agricultural organisations are flagging soybeans as a crop with huge growth potential, alongside projects now delivering higher soybean yields and drawing smallholders into soybean processing in a double drive that is upping earnings by up to 15-fold.
Concentrated around a soybean project in Mumias, Western Kenya, the new soybean models have already tripled the incomes of more than 3,000 farmers in the region, and could equally be applied to the more than 30,000 smallholders now growing the crop across Kenya, say agricultural experts.
According to a National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) report, in the last five years, soybean cultivation in Africa has grown at five per cent a year, while production has risen by seven per cent a year.
But Africa still only accounts for 0.6 per cent of the world’s total production, despite now growing the crop on a total 1.5 million hectares of land.
In efforts to raise returns from the crop, the Mumias Soybean Project is part of a bigger Sub Saharan Africa initiative being administered locally by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), and hinging on its recent release of new superior Soya varieties.
The varieties are drought and disease tolerant and yield 750kg to 1200kg per hectare compared with previous norms as low as 200kg a hectare.
The new varieties also have “good leaf biomass,” said Dr Jendeka Mahasi of KARI, which makes them suitable as high-protein livestock feed and also for use to create bio energy.
The varieties mature in 90 to 135 days, and on harvesting the clustered farmers in Mumias are selling their produce to their local market and to local processor, Mumias Soybean Federation, which is paying them Sh50 a kilo, compared with around Sh25 when they were selling to individuals and brokers.
The farmers are also engaging in home based value addition through their association the Soybean Farmers Association, making Soybean flour, Soy nuts, fortified flours for porridge like Soybean Finger millet flour, Soybean Sorghum flour, Soya beverage, Soya milk and Soya crunchies.
The Soya milk has a longer shelf life than milk from animals.
A kilogramme of some of these products is selling for as much as Sh200 which translates to extra earnings of some Sh150 a kilo compared with unprocessed Soya Beans.
“Value addition is increasing the value even by 4 to 15 times,” said Dr Mahasi from her assessment.
Besides its commercial value, Soya is also rich nutritionally. Soybean has 40 per cent protein and 20 per cent oil.
As a high protein crop, it’s emerging as a crop for curbing malnutrition, particularly among women and children in Africa.
It’s also one of the legumes being fronted for use in green bio-fuel energy industry.
In the US, it has emerged as a front-running crop in the bio-fuel industry, with the Soybean Industry now estimated as worth over $2 billon dollars, according to a US Soybean Board report of 2009.
In Kenya, soya is suited to the lower and upper midlands at altitudes of 1400 to 1800 metres above sea level, and KARI is already working with farmers in Vihiga and Butere to replicate the Mumias project’s success.
Other regions in Kenya where soya grows are Mwea, Migori, Meru and Nakuru - in Rift Valley


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Direct Sales, Ride-Hailing Bills Among Those DOA In Texas House
Tesla and Uber are among those whose efforts were for nothing as a crucial deadline to win approval on the Texas House floor passed last week.
The deadline was the last chance for House bills to win initial approval from the entire chamber, The Star-Telegram reports. Though said bills could be added onto other bills through the end of the legislative session June 1, “the funnel is only so large” to commit the necessary action, according to House Republican Caucus chair Rep. Tan Parker of Flower Mound.
One of the bills shut out by the deadline would have granted transportation network companies like Lyft and Uber statewide licenses to operate while stripping individual cities of their right to regulate their services. House Bill 2440, sponsored by Rep. Chris Paddie of Marshall, failed to receive a floor vote due to issues surrounding safety, wheelchair-access, and insurance.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s efforts to overturn the state’s ban on direct sales were thwarted for a second time since 2013. House Bill 1653 and Senate Bill 639 would have allowed automakers who’ve never sold their wares through a franchise dealership network to open and operated up to 12 stores in Texas. Neither bill drew a committee vote on their respective floors, with the blame directed at Tesla itself, according to Rep. Senfronia Thompson of Houston:
I can appreciate Tesla wanting to sell cars, but I think it would have been wiser if Mr. Tesla had sat down with the car dealers first.


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With the ubiquity of social media and dating apps today, one might think more teens would be taking to the internet or apps to start relationships. According to a new Pew Research Center study, "Teens, Technology, and Romantic Relationships," the majority of teens ages 13-17 prefer asking people out in person over heading to a social networking site.
Q1 results: Solar World group balances module price decreases with cost reduction plus growth in sales to boost operational profit Bonn, Germany / Hillsboro, Ore., May 5, 2009 – The Solar World group got 2009 off to a successful start with its sales campaigns for a "Rooftop Piggy Bank" (Germany) and "Do the Bright Thing" (U.


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Nokia will receive over $1 billion (£600m) from Microsoft in order to make handsets running the Windows Phone 7 operating system, according to reports.
The five year contract, which has yet to be signed according to Bloomberg, will see Microsoft stump-up a portion of the cash immediately to help the ailing Finnish manufacturer get started with the project.
In turn, Nokia will pay Microsoft a software license fee for each copy of Windows it uses in its handsets, which it will account for by slashing its own research and development budget.
The license payments will allow the US-based tech Goliath to make a profit on the deal, said to the report.
The whopping payment may well have been the much-discussed sweetener that prevented Nokia signing-on as a partner with Android and going with WP7 instead.
Other observers are suggesting that the Finns felt they would have a much better chance to stand out in the crowd, as WP7 has far less handsets on the market than the Android platform.
Whatever the true reason, Nokia has been thrown a lifeline with the Microsoft tie-in and we're about to find out whether the company can get its head above water and pull itself to shore.


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NEWLY-created hospitality group The Warren Collection is preparing to open a luxury boutique hotel in a converted Victorian townhouse on Belfast's Malone Road.
It has renovated the historic ‘Number 11’ building opposite Queen’s University computer science building to include 12 bedrooms with contemporary en-suite shower room, bright lounge area and self- service tea room.
It is the first investment in Belfast for The Warren Collection which has already outlined ambitious plans to open six more locations in the next 12 months including another in Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh and Dubai.
Co-founder Mark Docherty said “The Number 11 is the perfect starting point in our journey. Despite the challenges global tourism is going through due to the pandemic, Belfast is, and will continue to be, a great destination for both domestic and international tourists.
“The new hotel is sure to be a favoured choice for business travellers, academics visiting the Queen’s campus just across the street as well as staycationers.”
Fellow co-founder David Warren added “This first hotel in my home town of Belfast will create something a little bit different and unique while maintaining a great customer experience and a superb quality product. We look forward to announcing several more properties and creating more jobs in the months ahead.”


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In a surprising turn of events, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has hinted at a "potential settlement" in its high-stakes patent infringement lawsuit against tech giants Apple and Broadcom over Wi-Fi chips. The recent federal court filing has sent shockwaves through the tech industry, as it signifies a possible end to a long-standing legal battle that has spanned several years.
The legal saga began in 2016 when Caltech accused Apple and Broadcom of infringing on its wireless communication patents, specifically related to millions of iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and other Apple devices equipped with Broadcom chips. Initially, in 2020, a jury awarded Caltech an astonishing $837.8 million from Apple and an additional $270.2 million from Broadcom for patent infringement. A U.S. appeals court, however, overturned this decision last year and deemed it "legally unsupportable."
This reversal led to the order for a fresh damages trial, which was scheduled for June 2023 but was indefinitely postponed in May 2023. The uncertainty surrounding the case left many industry observers wondering about the future of this protracted legal battle.
Now, the recent court filing suggests that a resolution might be in sight. The nature of this potential settlement remains shrouded in mystery, as no specific details have been disclosed. It is unclear whether Apple and Broadcom have agreed to the terms proposed by Caltech.
Both Apple and Broadcom have remained tight-lipped about the recent development, refusing to comment on the situation. This silence has only added to the intrigue surrounding the case. The judge overseeing the matter has ordered a joint status report by August 18, which could provide further clarity on the situation.
For Caltech, this potential settlement represents a significant legal victory. If finalized, it could result in a substantial financial gain for the institution, as the initial award of nearly $1.1 billion would be reinstated. This could have far-reaching implications for Caltech's research and academic endeavors, potentially bolstering its position in the tech industry.
However, this is not the only legal battle Caltech is involved in. The university has pending Wi-Fi patent lawsuits against other tech giants, including Microsoft, Dell, and HP. Whether the possible settlement with Apple and Broadcom sets a precedent or influences the outcomes of these other lawsuits remains to be seen.


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Report: India’s Last-Mile CO2 Emissions at Least Half of Overall Exhaust From E-Com Deliveries
The Stand.earth Research Group has published its latest findings claiming that the last-mile emissions of the six largest global delivery and e-commerce companies alone amount to approximately 4.5 megatons of carbon dioxide.
The report also finds that the last mile CO2 emissions in India and across the other regions are at least half of all overall emissions from e-commerce deliveries. This figure is expected to rise exponentially in the coming years. This is roughly equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions from one million petrol passenger vehicles.
Source: MSN (link opens in a new window)


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- Burger King’s A.1 Halloween Burger is reportedly turning people’s poop a bright green colour!
- The ‘black Whopper’ is a version of the fast food chain’s signature burger, but on a black bun. Many have taken to Twitter to say (and show!) that their poo turned green after eating the burger (using the hashtag #GreenPoop).
- It’s reported that the burger contains less than 1% food dye (namely D&C Red #40 and FD&C Blue #1).
- According to the FDA, the dyes are safe for consumption with similar reactions seen when people eat large amounts of green vegetables.


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Volvo Penta Forward Drive
Volvo Penta earned an NMMA Innovation Award for its Forward Drive (FWD) propulsion system at the recent Miami International Boat Show.
The system includes forward-facing, dual counter-rotating props with an adjustable trim drive. The design pushes, instead of pulls, boats through the water, allowing builders to create new models optimized for diving, swimming and fishing behind the boat.
“Winning this prestigious NMMA Innovation Award is a great testimony to the passion for innovation that drives our Volvo Penta team,” Ron Huibers, president of Volvo Penta of the Americas, stated in a press release. “It’s the latest breakthrough technology to join Volvo Penta’s impressive list of boating industry firsts, including Aquamatic sterndrives in 1959, DuoProps in 1982, IPS in 2005, joystick controls in 2006 and the Glass Cockpit in 2013.”
FWD is part of Volvo Penta’s “Easy Boating” initiative, which is meant to get more families onto the water.
Learn more at www.volvopenta.com.


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BENGALURU: Indian handset manufacturer, Wham! Mobiles, has announced West Indian and IPL Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) cricketer Chris Gayle as its brand ambassador.
The association at present will be for a year, but Wham Infocom (Wham) managing director Subhash Chandra L says that it would probably be extended for further periods. Chris Gayle will be endorsing the entire range of smart phones, feature phones and tabs for Wham! in India.
Wham! was launched by Sangeetha Mobiles which has been in the mobile retail business for the past 18 years. The company says that with this move, Wham! makes its pitch at the national level - offering cutting edge mobiles at affordable prices with a big star to endorse it for greater impact. For the young generation, who demands a handset packed with many features that’s also easy on the pocket, they can easily relate to Chris Gayle with his power performance on the field just as Wham!
Chandra says, ““We are thrilled to unleash the famous ‘Gayle Storm’ on our customers. We couldn’t find a better connect to our brand than Chris. Wham! is an all-rounder just like our brand ambassador Chris Gayle, providing the ever evolving Indian customers with the latest innovation, the finest features and the most stylish products at an affordable price. Chris Gayle is the perfect embodiment of what Wham! is all about. We are proud to be associated with the all-rounder.”
“We are working on a media plan on how to use Gayle effectively. Quite obviously, television, print and outdoor as well as social media and youtube, digital media would all be a part of those plans. We have no option but to burn money on branding to make our presence felt and to grow our revenues from Rs 60 crore in the last fiscal to about Rs.250-300 crore in this one,” reveals Chandra.
“We are on the verge of finalising the creative agency, and would probably announce this in a couple of days’ time. The main contenders are Beehive Communications and Bengaluru based People along with a couple of other agencies. Beehive has worked with us for our parent company Sangeetha Mobiles in the past. We have been buying media through different agencies, as well as directly. We have a different agency for television, another one for outdoor and another one for print for Sangeetha Mobiles,” adds Chandra.
Wham! has launched 32 models in the market at an attractive price range of Rs 999 to Rs 14,999, within one year. “Our products have been received very well by our Indian customers in 11 states. We aim to expand our presence nationally. With this partnership, we look forward to bringing both the all-rounders – Wham! and Chris Gayle – on the national platform for better delivery and a power-packed performance,” concludes Chandra.


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“The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Tuesday demanded that Microsoft issue refunds for MSN Music Store purchases that will be inaccessible after Microsoft deletes the music store servers this summer,” Chloe Albanesius reports for PC Magazine.
“Microsoft announced last week that as of August 31, the company will delete its MSN Music [PlaysForSure] license servers, so music purchased from the now-defunct MSN Music Store will be accessible only via the five computers you authorized to play the tunes,” Albanesius reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft’s PlaysForSure is going to be a long-term problem for Apple. – Rob Enderle, oft-quoted and oft-wrong paid mouthpiece, January 09, 2006
Albanesius continues, reporting that Shari Steele, EFF executive director, wrote an open letter on April 29, 2008 to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, “Steele called on Ballmer to formally apologize to customers affected by the change. Customers should also be offered a refund for music purchased, or replacements from an online store that offers the same tracks in a DRM-free format, she wrote.”
MacDailyNews Take: How nice of Microsoft and its partners to clearly identify devices, PCs and music services that won’t work well or at all with Apple’s market-dominating iTunes Music Store and even-more-dominating iPod… This’ll make it easier for consumers to avoid making expensive mistakes. They should’ve just called it ‘Don’tBuyThis.’ – MacDailyNews, October 15, 2004
Albanesius continues, “Microsoft general manager Rob Bennett told CNet last week that continued support for Music Store purchases was impractical, and that the focus should instead be placed on the Zune.”
MacDailyNews Take: Why focus on failure?
Albanesius continues, “‘No one ever foresaw being in this situation,’ Bennett said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, Rob, plenty of people did, just no one at Microsoft. That’s what happens when you put a chimp in charge.
Albanesius continues, “Microsoft launched the MSN Music Store in September, 2004, in an effort to compete with Apple’s iTunes, but it never made much of a dent in iTunes’ business. Two years later, Microsoft started redirecting MSN Music Store shoppers to the Zune Marketplace.”
MacDailyNews Take: All three of them.
Albanesius’ full report is here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “HMCIV” for the heads up.]


text: Andy Grove: Wireless future is 'messy' Summary: During an Intel media event unveiling wireless hot spots at San Francisco International Airport, Intel co-founder Andy Grove tells CNET's Brian Cooley he rarely uses Wi-Fi himself. March 5, 2003 -- 23:38 GMT (15:38 PST) SHARE: SUBSCRIBE TO: Wi-Fi TOPICS: Wi-Fi, Networking 0 March 5, 2003 -- 23:38 GMT (15:38 PST) Loading... Please wait. Topics: Wi-Fi, Networking Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.


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Chef Vicky Lau of Tate Dining Room in Hong Kong is the first female chef in Asia to receive two Michelin stars.
Tate Dining Room, run by Hong Kong’s only female Michelin-star chef Vicky Lau, and French fine dining restaurant L’Envol in the St Regis hotel were awarded two Michelin stars in the 2021 Michelin Guide Hong Kong & Macau, while eight others were handed one star, including The Chairman and Yardbird.
The results were announced in a virtual ceremony with Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin guides, reading out the names from Paris, two days after stars were awarded in the UK and Ireland.
Hong Kong now has 12 restaurants with two stars and 50 with one star. The number of three-star restaurants remains unchanged at seven.
In Macau, Wing Lei Palace at the Wynn Palace Cotai received one star, the only change in the “Vegas of China”.
One of the Hong Kong restaurants awarded one star for the first time was Ando, helmed by chef and co-owner Agustin Ferrando Balbi.
When asked his reaction, Balbi admitted he was still in shock. “I didn’t know anything before the ceremony and found out just now. When we heard the name ‘Ando’ we went crazy! Our customers who were eating a late lunch or early dinner asked us what was going on,” he said with a laugh, adding the staff gave all the diners a glass of champagne.
“We opened in July and then closed the restaurant two times,” Balbi said of opening in the midst of the pandemic. But he was grateful to his team for working hard together.
Another thrilled recipient of a first star was Chinese executive chef Jayson Tang Ka-ho of Man Ho Chinese Restaurant at the JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong.
“I am so excited right now,” he said on the phone following the ceremony. “I want to get my team together and we can celebrate.”
He said the pandemic had made it difficult to serve the best Chinese food for his guests, with the restrictions constantly changing and groups currently limited to two people per table, with dining in stopping at 6pm.
“We want to get the freshest ingredients, but the restrictions have made it harder for us to predict how much of each ingredient to buy. For example, we may only buy a few fish, so we sometimes sell out, and I have to apologise to customers that we have run out. I would rather sell out of a dish than not have fresh ingredients to cook for my guests.”
Meanwhile, Lau of Tate Dining Room in Sheung Wan is the first female chef in Asia to receive two Michelin stars. Her dishes focus on French-Chinese fine dining and in the past year she has created several “Ode to” themed menus that focus on a single ingredient, including tofu, tea and soy sauce.
“Covid has made me rethink why I am cooking and what I am cooking and sometimes we forget these two questions,” she said.
“It has made me realign everything. My ‘Ode to’ menus have pushed me to look deeper into each ingredient and our customers come back each time there is a new menu. It has made me focus on the ingredients I use and the cooking techniques.”
She said she is “very, very happy” and that the Michelin recognition is a dream come true.
An intriguing choice for one Michelin star this year is Yardbird, a casual yakitori place opened by Matt Abergel and Lindsay Jang 10 years ago.
“It’s a positive thing, it’s a weird thing,” Abergel said, trying to process the news. “It [Michelin] has never been on my mind, we don’t associate with it, it’s not who we are as a restaurant, unlike Ando which is living that world, but we are very grateful and it couldn’t have come at a better time.”
Abergel said the pandemic made it very challenging to keep the Sheung Wan restaurant going, and the takeaway business comes at a greater cost with packaging, and fewer people drinking alcohol.
He is surprised Yardbird was recognised a decade after being in business, though he promises the restaurant will not change because of the gourmet accolade.
A new award for Hong Kong and Macau is the Michelin Green Star, praising restaurants that have innovative practices that combine gastronomy and sustainability in daily operations. This year two restaurants were noted: Roganic in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay and IFT Educational Restaurant in Macau.
Michelin has been holding virtual announcements for various countries despite the pandemic forcing many restaurants around the world to shut down. In Hong Kong, restaurants have had to be very flexible to adjust to government-mandated measures that can change weekly.
In his video address, Poullennec thanked the chefs and restaurants for working hard to keep their businesses going during the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic.
8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon
Lung King Heen
Sun Tung Lok
Tate Dining Room
Tin Lung Heen
Ying Jee Club
Ah Yat Harbour View
Fook Lam Moon (Wan Chai)
Guo Fu Lou
Ho Hung Kee (Causeway Bay)
I M Teppanyaki & Wine
Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine (Tsim Sha Tsui)
Jardin de Jade (Wan Chai)
Kam’s Roast Goose
Lei Garden (Kwun Tong)
Liu Yuan Pavilion
Mandarin Grill + Bar
Ming Court (Mong Kok)
New Punjab Club
Ryota Kappou Modern
Takumi by Daisuke Mori
Tim Ho Wan (Sham Shui Po)
Tosca di Angelo
Xin Rong Ji
Yan Toh Heen
Yat Tung Heen
Yè Shanghai (Tsim Sha Tsui)
Zest by Konishi
Robuchon au Dôme
Alain Ducasse at Morpheus
Feng Wei Ju
8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana
The Golden Peacock
Wing Lei Palace
Ying Zi Yat Heen
Best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch.


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Now in its third-year EntreCon 2017 will focus on Entrepreneurship and Continued Learning.
With themes of Starting a Business, Growing a Business, Building Leadership Muscle and Employee Development this is a "must attend" for business owners, leaders, and employees.
The two-day business conference will provide an opportunity to learn from local and national business leaders who will share the lessons they have learned in launching and growing businesses; how to create great cultures and engagement; and ways to raise capital to seed and grow a business.
New for 2017 is a free, bonus day of learning with SCI Founder Quint Studer for those who attend the conference.
EntreCon featured speakers include:
Dan Heath, co-author of the New York Times best-selling book, "Switch."
Bert Thornton, retired vice chairman emeritus of Waffle House and recent author of the book "Find an Old Gorilla."
Kevin Sheridan, New York Times best-selling author of "Building a Magnetic Culture" and "The Virtual Manager."
Liz Jazwiec, internationally renowned speaker, strategist, and author of "Eat THAT Cookie!" "Hey Cupcake! We are ALL Leaders," and "Service Excellence is as easy as P.I.E."
EntreCon started in November of 2015 and was a huge success. EntreCon 2017 is set to be bigger and better than ever. At EntreCon, you will find encouragement, ideas and actionable steps to build the success of your career or organization.
We guarantee you will not be disappointed. More national and local speakers to be announced soon — Stay tuned!
The Studer Community Institute Entrepreneur Awards will be presented at a special event on Nov. 15. The presenting sponsor of the Entrepreneur Awards this year is Cox Business.


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A clinical trial has provided evidence that a high street cosmetic anti-ageing product does indeed reduce wrinkles and improve the appearance of sun-damaged skin.
Scientists at the University of Manchester recruited 60 volunteers, some of whom were treated with No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum while others received a placebo (dummy treatment).
Their findings, which appear in the British Journal of Dermatology, show that 70 per cent of those using the anti-ageing product had significantly fewer wrinkles than those using the placebo after 12 months of daily use.
The study follows the team's previous discovery that the product stimulates the production of a protein called fibrillin-1, which promotes skin elasticity.
Lead researcher Professor Chris Griffiths noted that 'very few' over-the-counter anti-ageing products have been tested in rigorous trials.
'Our findings demonstrate that a commercially-available cosmetic can produce significant improvement in the appearance of facial wrinkles following long-term use,' he said.
'It is rare for such benefits to be reported for an over-the-counter anti-ageing product and this study paves the way for larger studies with more statistical power.'
The Harley Medical Group recently revealed that demand for non-surgical skin treatments has risen, with the group's clinics witnessing an 86 per cent increase in medical microdermabrasion and chemical peels.


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A4T Gains Rights to PS4 Accessories
Peripheral company A4T has revealed that it has secured the rights to manufacture and distribute PS4 accessories.
Continuing a partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe that started in 2008, A4T will be launching a line of:
- Storage cases
- Charging docks
- Licensed DualShock 4 controllers
- Licensed Playstation Eye cameras
“We’re very excited to be there at launch, reinforcing our already substantial offering of PS3 and Vita products,” said A4T co-founder Bill Stirling.
It is unclear if these products being launched under the 4Gamers brand will make it to retailers outside of Europe. The line will be launched in Q4 of this year, allegedly by November 29th, the PS4's European launch date, two weeks after the console launches in North America on November 15th.
For European gamers at least, it means a boon of third-party accessories at launch. With no pricing information as yet announced, potentially at a lower price than Sony's own equipment. Hooray for possible savings!


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Cod is seriously overfished in many parts of the world and one of the 20 species on the red list.
The red list is available at our new seafood website, which also provides background information on the overfishing crisis and advice for industry and retailers on developing sustainable seafood sourcing policies.
Our international red list includes 20 endangered species, including tuna, cod and shark, which companies must stop selling unless they can prove that the fish stocks they source from are in a healthy state, and are not fished using destructive techniques. Our offices in Spain, the US and Canada are also launching national red lists, together with assessments of national retailer seafood procurement policies.
The fish species on the red list are included because:
- the species has a life history that makes it vulnerable to overexploitation
- the species is sourced from overfished and depleted stocks, or is being fished at such high levels the stock will soon be overfished
- the fishing methods used to catch the species are highly destructive to other marine life and/or marine habitats
All over the world, fish stocks are in crisis. Aquaculture operations - fish farms - are adding to the problems when they're not sustainable.
The need for action is acutely clear. Cod is one of the species on the list. The Grand Banks in Newfoundland was once the world's most productive fishery but it collapsed completely in 1992 and has never recovered. Right now huge industrial fishing fleets are chasing dwindling tuna stocks to the brink of extinction.
Sustainable seafood is catching on
The required solutions can be implemented now. Indeed some are already being implemented. Major UK food retailers M&S and Waitrose have sustainable seafood policies. Suppliers like Young's Bluecrest, are now leaders in the sustainable seafood. These are the examples the seafood industry need to be following.
Our new website helps retailers and seafood processors to understand what the problems are and how they can develop a sustainable seafood purchasing policy. They have a powerful and unique role to play in turning the crisis facing our oceans around, but they need to act, now, if they want to ensure that customers like you have fish on your plates for years to come.
The seafood website will keep you updated with news from around the world of how supermarkets and food chains are meeting the challenge of sustainable seafood.
Global marine reserves
You can read more about why we're campaigning for a global network of fully-protected marine reserves, covering 40 percent of our oceans: they're an essential way to protect our seas from the ravages of climate change, to restore the health of fish stocks, and to protect ocean life from habitat destruction and collapse. You can also catch up with the latest news from the Arctic Sunrise in the Mediterranean, confronting the overfishing of endangered bluefin tuna.
If we want fish on our plate tomorrow we need marine reserves today.
Add your name to the call to protect the world's oceans.
We don't accept money from governments or corporations, but rely on millions of people all over the world like you to keep us going.


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- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 04:26 05:44 12:20 15:47 18:50 20:08
The German luxury sports car maker Porsche said Thursday it had placed a one-billion-euro ($1.43 billion) bond with institutional investors in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Market response to the private placement was good, a Porsche statement said, with investors willing to take up the issue despite a negative impact on bond markets from the US subprime housing market crisis.
"The fact that we were able to place this volume shows that investors have confidence in Porsche," finance director Holger Haerter was quoted as saying.
Proceeds from the operation would be used to refinance Porsche's holdings in the German car giant Volkswagen and to provide liquidity reserves, the maker of the 911 sports car said.
This year, Porsche became the primary shareholder in VW, with a stake of nearly 31 per cent, and has made no secret of its intention to raise its holding to more than 50 percent at term.
In its 2006-2007 fiscal year, Porsche posted a record net profit of 4.242 billion euros, in large part owing to financial mechanisms linked to the value of its VW holding. (AFP)
Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.


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CAPE CORAL, Fla. (Dec. 13, 2022) – Working with the Chamber of Commerce of Cape Coral, natural health store Mercola Market of Cape Coral continues to host its Mid-Cape Sunshine Farmer’s Market every Tuesday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at its centrally located campus at 125 SW 3rd Place.
“The Mid-Cape Sunshine Farmer’s Market has shown great success with nearly 30 vendors offering organic, homemade goods and more, even after the devastation that Hurricane Ian brought to our community,” says Patrick Rossi, Campus Operations Manager at Mercola.
Running through April 2023, the weekly market showcases a variety of goods, from organic produce and homemade bread to handmade jewelry and home décor.
For more information about both events, visit capecoralfarmersmarket.com.
The Mercola Market of Cape Coral is a natural health retail store and café located in the center of the city at 125 SW 3rd Place. It exclusively offers Dr. Mercola® supplements and other premium products for your health, home, pantry and pet. Its Café offers one-of-a-kind biodynamic beverages, fit for the morning and the evening, and healthy food options for each meal of the day. The main campus serves as a hub for the community, hosting family-friendly events throughout the year, including yoga, trivia, food truck gatherings and comedy nights, while offering a 4,000-square-foot event space for local businesses and organizations to rent. The Mercola Market & Café is open Tuesday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information or a complete list of upcoming events and updates, visit mercolamarketcc.com.


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We're getting a few reports, including one over at tech site cnBeta.com that the Windows Phone Marketplace is undergoing a lengthy blackout. Specifically when users try to download an app, the progress bar gets about half way (full downloaded) and then an "attention required" message pops up with an error 805a01f8.
What's perhaps worse is these errors have been going on for nearly 20 hours now, making this a significant down-time for many new Windows Phone users in China.
The error users are seeing in China right now when they attempt an app download
Word from cnBeta is that there is no official comment from Microsoft China on the matter and users are basically on their own until the system is fixed, leaving many users disgruntled and frustrated.
Companies like Nokia and HTC have both recently made a large push into China signaling a successful attempt at selling Microsoft's OS to new customers, however such a setback with the Marketplace could create some negative blow-back from early adoptees.
If you're in China and experiencing these problems or if they have resolved themselves, let us know in comments.
Source: cnBeta.com; Thanks, x. wang., for the tip


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The Food is Too Damn High
Get me higher than the grocery bill.
In a NYT guest editorial, Stacy Mitchell, the executive director of something called the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, purports to explain “The Real Reason Your Groceries Are Getting So Expensive.” The start is not promising:
Food Fresh is the only grocery store in a rural stretch of southeastern Georgia. It has many five-star Google reviews praising its freshly butchered meats, tomato bar and friendly service. Yet it faces a threat to its survival that no amount of management skill can overcome. Big retailers like Walmart and Kroger “have a handle on suppliers that I can’t touch,” said Food Fresh’s owner, Michael Gay. The chains wrest deep discounts from suppliers, making it impossible for the store to come close to matching the chains’ prices.
To understand why grocery prices are way up, we need to look past the headlines about inflation and reconsider long-held ideas about the benefits of corporate bigness.
Like other independent grocers, Food Fresh buys through large national wholesalers that purchase goods by the truckload, achieving the same volume efficiencies the big chains do. What accounts for the difference in price is not efficiency but raw market power. Major grocery suppliers, including Kraft Heinz, General Mills and Clorox, rely on Walmart for more than 20 percent of their sales. So when Walmart demands special deals, suppliers can’t say no. And as suppliers cut special deals for Walmart and other large chains, they make up for the lost revenue by charging smaller retailers even more, something economists refer to as the water bed effect.
This isn’t competition. It’s big retailers exploiting their financial control over suppliers to hobble smaller competitors. Our failure to put a stop to it has warped our entire food system. It has driven independent grocers out of business and created food deserts. It has spurred consolidation among food processors, which has slashed the share of food dollars going to farmers and created dangerous bottlenecks in the production of meat and other essentials.
I mean, that sucks for smaller grocers but, since I don’t shop at one, it doesn’t explain why my grocery prices are higher. I don’t buy a lot of mine at Walmart anymore, since it’s not all that convenient, mostly shopping at Safeway, Giant, and Wegman’s—all of which are major chains with a national or massive regional footprint.
This finally leads to a thesis statement:
And in a perverse twist, it has raised food prices for everyone, no matter where you shop.
But first, she takes a discursion into history:
A level playing field was long a tenet of U.S. antitrust policy. In the 19th century, Congress barred railroads from favoring some shippers over others. It applied this principle to retailing in 1936 with the Robinson-Patman Act, which mandates that suppliers offer the same terms to all retailers. The act allows large retailers to claim discounts based on actual volume efficiencies but blocks them from extracting deals that aren’t also made available to their competitors. For roughly four decades, the Federal Trade Commission vigorously enforced the act. From 1954 to 1965, the agency issued 81 cease-and-desist orders to stop suppliers of milk, tea, oatmeal, candy and other foods from giving preferential prices to the largest grocery chains.
As a result, the grocery retailing sector was enviable by today’s standards. Independent grocery stores flourished, accounting for more than half of food sales in 1958. Supermarket chains like Safeway and Kroger also thrived. This dynamism fed a broad prosperity. Even the smallest towns and poorest neighborhoods could generally count on having a grocery store. And the industry’s diffuse structure ensured that its fruits were widely distributed. Of the nearly nine million people working in retailing overall in the mid-1950s, nearly two million owned or co-owned the store where they worked. There were more Black-owned grocery stores in 1969 than there are today.
Then, amid the economic chaos and inflation of the late 1970s, the law fell into disfavor with regulators, who had come to believe that allowing large retailers to flex more muscle over suppliers would lower consumer prices. For the most part, the law hasn’t been enforced since. As a top Reagan administration official explained in 1981, antitrust was no longer “concerned with fairness to smaller competitors.”
Note that this was part of a larger, bipartisan consensus that the economy was over-regulated, leading to substantial deregulation efforts under Presidents Carter and Reagan.
This was a serious miscalculation. Walmart, which seized the opening and soon became notorious for strong-arming suppliers and undercutting local businesses, now captures one in four dollars Americans spend on groceries. Its rise spurred a cascade of supermarket mergers, as other chains sought to match its leverage over suppliers. If the latest of these mergers — Kroger’s bid to buy Albertsons — goes through, just five retailers will control about 55 percent of grocery sales. Food processors in turn sought to counterbalance the retailers by merging. Supermarket aisles may seem to brim with variety, but most of the brands you see are made by just a few conglomerates.
But this has been happening over the course of half a century, a period that, until COVID broke everything, was marked with essentially no inflation and a massive explosion in consumer buying power. By almost every conceivable measure, we’re more affluent than our Carter-era counterparts.
These food giants are now the dominant buyers of crops and livestock. The lack of competition has contributed to the decline in farmers’ share of the consumer grocery dollar, which has fallen by more than half since the 1980s. In the absence of rivals, food conglomerates have over time increasingly been able to raise prices and as a result have reported soaring profits over the past two years. Inflation gives them a cover story, but it’s the lack of competition that allows them to get away with it. Meat prices surged last year among the four companies that control most pork, beef and poultry processing. Companies like PepsiCo and General Mills have also jacked up prices without seeing any loss of sales — a sure sign of uncontested market power.
So, on the one hand, this is quite plausible. That was always the fear of consolidation: as companies gained market power, consumers would have no alternatives. But, again, it didn’t happen until the pandemic broke the supply chains. Further, it works both ways: if a handful of companies dominate the market, any one of them could benefit massively by holding the line on prices while their competitors try to price gouge. Absent evidence of collusion, the mechanism for this is unclear. (And “inflation” isn’t an “excuse” for higher prices; it’s a measure of prices.)
This has resulted in an ever-worsening cycle: As a system dominated by a few retailers lifts prices across the board — even at Walmart — consumers head to those retailers because of their ability to wrest relatively lower prices or simply because they’re the only options left. Walmart’s share of grocery sales swelled last year as more people flocked to its stores.
Way back in 2008, a longtime regular commenter who abruptly disappeared in 2011, sent me a copy of Tom Slee’s No One Makes You Shop at Wal-Mart: The Surprising Deceptions of Individual Choice. It’s an interesting read on both the business practices of the retail giant and the nature of collective action problems. Walmart (as it’s long since rebranded) isn’t that powerful a presence locally but it was more-or-less the only game in town when I lived in Troy, Alabama 20-plus years ago.
Meanwhile, the decline of independent grocers, which disproportionately serve rural small towns and Black and Latino neighborhoods, has left debilitating gaps in our food system. If Food Fresh were to close, residents of Evans County, where the store is, would have to subsist on the limited range of packaged foods sold at a local dollar store or drive about 25 minutes to reach a Walmart. (Nearly a quarter of Evans County residents live in poverty.) Living without a grocery store nearby imposes a daily hardship on people and could lead to an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and other diet-related illnesses.
I’m skeptical of the causality here. I get why Walmart and mega-chain supermarkets would drive the local mom-and-pop out of business—in places where there’s a Walmart or mega-chain supermarket. But Walmart isn’t going into these “food deserts.” There’s not enough business there to make it profitable. So, surely, something other than Walmart explains the lack of grocery stores in these places?
Losing small retailers also stifles innovation. New food companies rely on independent retailers to introduce products. But as this diversity of retailers gives way to a monocrop of big chains, start-ups have fewer avenues to success. This results in diminished selection for shoppers, who find store shelves stocked with only what the big food conglomerates choose to produce.
So, first, this has nothing at all to do with answering the titular question nor advancing the ostensible thesis of the article. And, second, while it may be true in theory, it’s simply not true in fact. Or, well, maybe it’s technically true that we only get what conglomerates choose to produce but that they have chosen to give us vastly more variety than we’ve had in the entire span of human history.
Even in my big chain grocery stores, there’s an absurd array of international foods that I’d never seen even a decade ago. I’m old enough to remember when grocery store “Mexican food” was hard shell tacos and grocery store “Chinese food” was that awful canned stuff from Chun King poured over some dried “noodles.” Or when most fruits and vegetables were only available during this thing called a “season.” Or when the bread isle comprised sliced “Wonder” bread, rye, and pumpernickel. (Although, come to think of it, I haven’t noticed pumpernickel in ages so maybe there’s something too this argument.
We need to stop big retailers from using their enormous financial leverage over suppliers to tilt the playing field. By resurrecting the Robinson-Patman Act, we could begin to put an end to decades of misguided antitrust policy in which regulators abandoned fair competition in favor of ever-greater corporate scale. There is promising momentum. Last year an unusual coalition of Democratic and Republican lawmakers sent a letter to the F.T.C. urging it to dust off Robinson-Patman. The agency began a broad inquiry in late 2021 into grocery supply issues, which could uncover evidence of price discrimination. This year the agency opened investigations into soft drink and alcohol suppliers for possible violations of the act.
While the article has done little to persuade me that conglomeration is the cause of high food prices, my instinct is that something like the Robinson-Patman Act makes sense. (Presumably, we’d name it after living legislators, what with the four-decade hiatus in enforcement.) While big retailers are naturally going to have pricing advantages over small ones by buying in bulk, exclusionary deals strike me as inherently bad.
These moves are already drawing fire from an old guard locked in bigger-is-always-better thinking. Jason Furman, a Harvard economist who served as a top adviser to President Barack Obama, tweeted recently that some of the views calling for a reset of our antitrust policies often seem “grounded less in consumer welfare and more in a view that everyone should be shopping at expensive craft boutiques.” But that’s not the story in places like Evans County. In the early days of the pandemic, as Walmart and Amazon compelled manufacturers to steer scarce supplies their way and worsened shortages at local grocers, Mr. Gay worked long days hustling to find alternate sources.
“My meat is fresher,” he said. “My produce is fresher. My customer service is better. Imagine if you made the playing field level. Imagine what I could do.”
I like the idea of fresher meat and better customer service. But, even though I’m relatively affluent, there’s only so much more that I’m willing to pay. If the Safeway 12 minutes from my house has tenderloin on sale for $15.99 a pound, I’m not going to Gay’s Fresh Mart and paying $29.99 a pound for service with a smile.
If Mitchell’s counter is that Safeway shouldn’t be able to undercut Gay by that amount, she’s essentially making Furman’s argument for him. And, for sure, she’s concerned about something altogether different than “The Real Reason Your Groceries Are Getting So Expensive.”


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Port volumes continue to soften in Los Angeles and the Inland Empire
Port volumes have decreased from their peak levels observed during the Covid-19 pandemic. During that time, consumer spending reached unprecedented heights, and businesses adopted a cautious approach by stockpiling inventories in anticipation of potential future disruptions. However, as of 2023, consumer spending has declined, leading to a shift away from the cautious approach, and consequently reducing the demand for additional storage space for inventories. In the second quarter of 2023, the leasing of distribution centers sized at 50K square feet and above within the Los Angeles and Inland Empire regions has experienced a decline of 21.4% compared to the previous quarter. Notably, occupiers are actively seeking to shed any excess space that was acquired during the pandemic period. This trend is evident as the net absorption rate reported a negative value of 3.4 million square feet in the second quarter. Projections indicate that the Port of Los Angeles is expected to handle a total of 8.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) by the end of the year. This figure marks a decrease from the record-setting volumes seen in 2021 and 2022.


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European private equity firm Triton Partners has acquired the heat exchangers business line from German processing firm GEA for about €1.3 billion, according to a statement.
GEA is primarily known for its food processing business, but also maintains a variety of business lines focused on automation and processing. The company’s heat exchanger business holds the bulk of the market in Germany and Western Europe.
“GEA Heat Exchangers operates in niche markets with global growth opportunities,” said Peder Prahl, director of the general partner of Triton funds, in a statement.
Triton focuses on medium-sized European businesses with a heavy emphasis on industrials, according to the firm’s website. Triton was recently involved in another transaction to acquire French power equipment manufacturer Alstom for €730 million.
Both investments came from Triton fund IV, according to sources familiar with the matter. Fund IV closed last year at €3.5 billion, above its original €2.4 billion target, according to Private Equity International’s research and analytics division.


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The volume of e-commerce in Egypt has increased to US$30 billion, said the CEO and Managing Director of United Bank, Ashraf al-Kady, adding that 72 percent of Egyptians have switched to online shopping using e-cards since 2020.
He added that the bank obtained a certificate of compliance with international standards for securing e-payment card data in 2023, in order to support the plans of the Egyptian government and the Central Bank of Egypt in furthering the nation’s digital transformation.
The United Bank obtained accreditation from the international committee accredited by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, he said, after passing through a series of accurate technical reviews specialized in the application of international standards, on protecting and securing e-payment card data.
The accreditation procedures also included large-scale control operations to test information systems and networks, he added, with the aim of ensuring the application and implementation of systems related to information security, and the application of all requirements of international standards.
The international committee confirmed that The United Bank has an electronic framework, secure systems and policies, and is based on the best practices of companies in the world, in addressing electronic attacks, and protecting and securing customer information and internal systems.
The committee praised the electronic technical framework that enables The United Bank to take proactive steps to combat e-threats, as well as follow-up mechanisms to mitigate risks and cyber attacks.
It added that the methods used in the bank to confront cyber attacks were based on several factors, including the professionalism of the work team, after going through a series of awareness and training courses on countering different types of cyber attacks.


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The results are in and Pret A Manger has been named ‘People’s Choice’ for excellent customer service. intu Milton Keynes invited the people of MK to vote for this prestigious award following National Customer Service Week in October.
The public voted through a web poll on the Shopping Centre’s website and social media. There were 26 finalists and the competition was close but Pret emerged triumphant with 26% of the vote. The award was presented to Assistant Manager KatyaSoothill and the team on Friday 7 November.
Katya commented: “We’re just trying to make every customer happy and give them a pleasant experience. It’s really nice to be recognised for our customer service.”
Martin Hindson, General Manager at intu Milton Keynes, said: “Customer service makes such a difference to the customer experience. I was pleased the competition was close as it shows a high standard across the board. I would like to congratulate Pret for their ‘People’s Choice’ win. I would also like to congratulate all the stores who performed highly in the National Customer Service Week retailer awards.”
National Customer Service Week ran from 6 – 10 October. intu Milton Keynes presented its top performing retailers with an award following a yearlong ‘mystery shop’. On four separate occasions, each retailer was visited and marked on their customer service. The number one retailer with an incredible 97.25% was Lush. In second place was Ed’s Dinerette and third place went to the intu House Keeping team with 97%. New Look received an award for the ‘Most Improved’ retailer with an impressive 24.17% increase on last year’s performance. 37 of the stores achieved over 80%.
Final week August blog.
This week I have been finishing the twists in the main trunk, getting The Parks Trust to turn the top section and working on developing the continuation of the movement. The next batch of wood has gone up to the wood turner for the acorns.
It was good to see the top section standing up to get an idea of how the sculpture would work when standing up. The e…More info
The magic of Christmas begins at intu Milton Keynes this year!
Central Milton Keynes will be lit up with thousands of twinkling, sparkly lights on Saturday 17 November, marking the start of the countdown to Christmas. Milton Keynes Business Improvement District, MyMiltonKeynes, together with partners will host the city centre’s light switch on, free for everyone to enjoy at intu Milton Keynes.… More info
intu Milton Keynes is set to install a dramatic and visually spectacular ‘living wall’ that will complete and complement its £2.8m car park redevelopment.
The regional shopping centre has been working with internationally renowned company, Biotecture, which specialises in transforming urban sites into ‘living and breathing’ installations.
Responsible for some of the UK’s most iconic living w…More info


text: Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Two significant Chapter 11 reorganizations in the Southern U.S. may be signs that lawyers in New York and Delaware are starting to price themselves out of the market, as Bloomberg Law's Lee Pacchia and Bloomberg News bankruptcy columnist Bill Rochelle discuss on their new video. Speaking of New York, Manhattan is losing Bankruptcy Judges Allan Gropper and James Peck to retirement. Rochelle explains how it came to pass that American Airlines stock worth 40 cents a share in October 2012 now came to be worth more than $17. Discount retailer Loehmann's Inc. may be stretching the rubber band too far, measured by the judge's initial reaction to a proposed sale schedule. The video closes with discussion of a Chapter 15 bankruptcy opinion from the Second Circuit appeals court in Manhattan that runs counter to the notion that U.S. courts lend assistance to bankruptcy courts in other countries.


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Mandy Cole, LivingSocial Inc.'s longtime sales chief, departed the D.C.-based deals giant this month for a new gig at Stella & Dot.
Cole joined LivingSocial in June 2010, according to her LinkedIn profile. In that time, she oversaw the sales team for the company's core local deals business. Those duties have been picked up by Jennifer Terrell, according to LivingSocial spokesman Andrew Weinstein.
Cole, who did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment, is the latest big name to depart the financially struggling company in recent months. For a fuller accounting of those departures, see our ongoing coverage of the LivingSocial diaspora.
Weinstein said CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy wanted to keep Cole onboard. "She'd been commuting from the West Coast for years and decided that it made more sense to be closer to her family out there," he said.
Stella & Dot, a San Francisco fashion accessories retailer, announced Cole's hiring in a news release on Wednesday.


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Independent fine jewellery brand The Alkemistry has reported a “record” 315% growth in year-on-year e-commerce sales, despite the pandemic’s impact on business at its Floral Street concept store.
In its latest update, the group said it was able to capitalise on shifting consumer trends during the period, as it noted an increase for “purchases with meaning, gifting and thoughtful spending”, all of which contributed to a 67% sales growth.
The London-based brand said its “best-performers” in the period have been its talismanic “feel-good” styles, such as its luxury create-your-own craft concept, Kumachi, and its manifestation bead collection, Cinta, which both attributed to sales growth over the year. It added that the brand’s Aria collection additionally became a “go-to gifting collection” during the Christmas period.
Over the last year, The Alkemistry has also adapted to the closure of its Floral Street concept store by working closely with retail partners, including Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Farfetch, to expand its retail presence.
It has also introduced further payment gateways and credit facilities for customers, including Klarna’s Buy Now, Pay Later scheme.
Global expansion now continues to be a long-term business objective, according to the group, following the extension of its retail pop-up within Galeries Lafayette in Qatar from one month to a further six into 2021.
Looking ahead, The Alkemistry is exploring international retail expansion opportunities in China, Middle East and Netherlands, but said it will keep its e-commerce platform as the priority for this first quarter due to the current climate.
Managing director Jenna McGee said: “Despite numerous hurdles during the first half of the year, and through our ability to adapt to our approach to market and the exceptional product launches within our own brand in the second half, we are really pleased with the results which set us in good stead to continue to grow into 2021.”
Founder and creative director, Kirstie Gibbs, added: “At the beginning of 2020 I would never have imagined having to close up all of our stores.
“We’ve really had to adapt and have used this time to try and focus on areas of improvement and built a collection that has resonated with what people want and need in the current climate such as timeless pieces, pick me ups and interactive kit. We are continuously looking at the change in our customers’ desires and creating and updating collections based on this.’’


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RAHWAY, N.J. (PRWEB) February 12, 2021 -- Worldwide jewelry manufacturer Novell Global is happy to announce a recent partnership with Saslow’s and Henebry’s Diamond Jewelers.
For over three generations, it has been the historic Southern jeweler’s privilege to help families in North Carolina and Virginia with lasting gifts of special meaning.
Their showcases feature over a dozen of Novell’s latest jewelry designs – many of which are being seen in the region for the first time. The collection includes an enticing selection of diamond styles set in lustrous 14kt white gold. All are meant to help guests celebrate the most important occasions that life has to offer and are available in other precious metals by special order.
Visit https://www.saslowshenebrys.com/ to see all the jewelry designs.
Saslow’s was founded by Barnet “BG” Saslow on Elm Street in downtown Greensboro in 1922. In 1948, after serving in World War II, his son Everett came to work for him. Grandson John is currently business owner and President.
In the late 1990’s, Saslow’s was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to acquire the prestigious Henebry’s Jewelers group - a venerable chain of fine jewelry stores with a proud reputation for quality and service. Having been in business in Virginia since 1900, they have been an important part of the Saslow's family of fine jewelers ever since.
With over fourteen locations throughout Virginia and North Carolina, Saslow's and Henebry's Jewelers is where the “South Comes to Sparkle.”
The company has also taken the time to acknowledge students within their communities who have achieved extraordinary things by putting in the extra time and effort in school.
The company’s Outstanding Achievement Award was recently presented to six local high school graduates. Along with a certificate of award, each student received a beautiful wristwatch – a special timepiece that commemorates twelve years of hard work and the future that each of these students has in front of them.
More About Novell Global:
Novell’s resume’ boasts over thirty years of award winning and innovative jewelry design, pioneering with online-jewelry visionaries, and creating one of the most remarkable jewelry- making facilities in the Americas (North and South).
Thanks to a recent partnership with Continental Jewellery (MFG) Ltd., Novell is growing their portfolio dynamically. With tremendous international sourcing and expanded product offerings, Novell’s domestic manufacturing facility in New Jersey has diversified.
Find Novell Jewelry at the Following Locations:
748 New River Rd
Christiansburg, VA 24073
325 Piedmont Dr., #305
Danville, VA 24540
3405 Candlers Mountain Rd.
Lynchburg, VA 24502
4802 Valley View Blvd. NW
Roanoke, VA 24012
1028 Richmond Ave
Staunton, VA 24401
1180 Blowing Rock Rd., E6
Boone, NC 28607
Saslow's Elizabeth City
409 W. Ehringhaus St., Space 27B
Elizabeth City, NC 27909
419 Cross Creek Mall, Suite 337
Fayetteville, NC 28303-7271
1445 Dabney Dr.
Henderson, NC 27536
1800 Four Seasons Blvd, Unit 6
Hendersonville, NC 28792
Valley Hills Mall, 1960 US Highway 70
Hickory, NC 28602-5097
2115 W. Roosevelt Blvd., Ste. 712
Monroe, NC 28110
738 Commonwealth Dr.
Norton, VA 24273
Heritage Crossing, 3401 Raleigh Road Pkwy W.
Wilson, NC 27896-8222
Richard Mulholland, Novell Global, http://www.novellglobal.com/, +1 888-668-3551 Ext: 8303, [email protected]


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Nike is overhauling its retail strategy and ending the pilot program with Amazon, which brought its sneakers and apparel to the world’s most viewed storefront.
In the era of mass e-commerce, one would think that most brands would fight for a place on Amazon. There is one that has decided against it, though; Nike. Here’s a little bit of the background:
Back in 2017, Nike and Amazon entered a mutually beneficial agreement that would see the athletic brand start selling its products on the online marketplace. In return, Amazon would intensify its efforts in eliminating counterfeits from its platform.
However, after two years, the deal is over. As first reported by Bloomberg, the company has decided to pull its products from Amazon to focus its efforts on distributing its products through a network of select retailers.
There are rumors that the deal just wasn’t living up to Nike’s expectations, but whatever the truth may be, the brand has always had a tradition of creating immersive and exclusive retail experiences. Therefore, it would be safe to assume that Nike would also like to focus on a distribution network that preserves the brand’s ethos – rather than appealing to the mass market.
The statement is further reinforced by the brand’s spokespersons, with sources saying that “as part of Nike’s focus on elevating consumer experiences through more direct, personal relationships, we have made the decision to complete our current pilot with Amazon Retail.”
The news comes amidst a wave of changes for the brand, an important one being the departure of Mark Parker, the man who helmed the sneaker giant for the last 13 years. Board member John Donahoe will replace Parker as of Jan 13, 2020.
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LEGO’s latest drop in the Marvel saga is Thor’s Hammer, Mjölnir, which is now available for pre-order for $99.99.


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(MoneyWatch) Prices for high-MPG compact cars and hybrids have begun rising in response to higher gas prices and could increase by as much as 20 percent over the next few months, according to analysts at Kelley Blue Book.
With national average gas prices at $3.84 a gallon according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report, consumer demand has begun pushing up the prices of fuel-efficient used cars. Pump prices for regular already average more than $4 a gallon in California, New York, Illinois and several other states. Forecasters see the national average gas price reaching $4.25 by the end of April, eclipsing the previous high mark of $4.11 in 2008.
The latest increases have reversed lagging prices for used hybrids and compacts. In the last week in February, hybrid car auction values were up by 3.6 percent and compact cars by 1.3 percent. Used values for the Toyota Prius, the best-known and biggest-selling hybrid, increased $1,370 overall in the month of February.
"Dealers have been aggressively bidding on fuel-efficient vehicles at auction as consumer demand increases," says Alec Gutierrez, senior market analyst for Kelley Blue Book and its website kbb.com "If the past is any indication, values of used fuel-efficient vehicles could increase by more than 20 percent over the course of the next few months."
Matching last year's run
Last year as gas prices hit $4 a gallon, high-MPG used cars hit record levels, also led by big increases for the Toyota Prius. But if the pattern of gasoline prices also matches last year, with lower levels after early summer, prices fuel-efficient used cars will also retreat again.
Of course, the wild card this year is potential conflict with Iran. If an incident there disrupts world oil supplies, crude oil and gasoline prices could soar.
The bottom line for used car shoppers: If you don't have to buy a car right now, wait and see what happens. You might get a high-MPG car later at a much better price.


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It’s being reported that Microsoft has dropped out of an auction for the sale of Hulu.
Bloomberg revealed on Tuesday that Microsoft is no longer bidding on the online video service which is currently up for sale. Microsoft reportedly informed Hulu executives last week that it would not bid into a second round.
Nothing prevents Microsoft from re-entering the bidding process at a later date though.
Hulu is a website and over-the-top (OTT) subscription service offering ad-supported on demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and many other networks and studios.
Hulu videos are currently offered only to users in the United States and its overseas territories.
Hulu provides video in Flash Video format, including many films and shows that are available in 288p, 360p, 480p, and in some cases, 720 HD.
Hulu also provides web syndication services for other websites including AOL, MSN, MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo!, and Comcast’s fancast.com.


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Kirkhams sitting on £2m DFS bonus
LORD Kirkham, DFS Furniture founder and chairman, and his family are set for a £2.2m share of a windfall dividend being paid to all shareholders after over-prudent accounting by the group.
The latest payout means the family has scooped more than £20m in dividends from the group since it was floated in 1993.
On top of the special 14.1p-a-share dividend today, returning £14.8m to shareholders, DFS pumped up the interim dividend nearly 10% to 6.7p. That was worth a further £714,000 to the Kirkhams, who own 10.2% of the shares.
DFS has been building up a fund in case it has to pay a hefty VAT bill, currently being disputed in the courts. But lawyers have told it the provisions are too prudent, even in the event of a victory for Customs and Excise.
DFS reported pre-tax profits of £43.2m in the six months to 26 January against £24.4m last time, on turnover of £211.7m versus £ 192.6m. On an underlying level, operating profits were up 8.9% to £25.7m.
But chief operating officer Jon Massey warned that despite a strong period of trading, especially over Christmas, sales had started to tail off slightly recently. Overall like-for-like sales were about 3% up.
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Travel tech company, OYO has always believed in studying data and trends to provide tailor-made offerings for travellers. Ahead of the upcoming Holi long weekend, OYO’s latest survey reflects a jump in demand for leisure destinations across India. As per the survey, with a whopping 44% of respondents opting for Goa, the beach state takes the top spot as India’s favourite destination for travellers between 18th and 20th March. 11% of respondents opted for the coastal city of Puri in Odisha and 8% for the cozy hill station of Mahabaleshwar. Following these, respondents have shown keen interest to travel across leisure hotspots such as Nainital, Mount-Abu, Pondicherry, Shillong, and Rishikesh among others. These destinations seem to be a thoughtful choice among travellers who wish to get some respite from the soaring summer temperatures across cities.
Since the decline of the third wave, and further relaxation of travel restrictions across states, people are looking forward to taking much-needed vacations with family and friends or even some time off alone, especially during festivals and long weekends.
Over the course of the pandemic years, we believe that people have adapted to the new ways of cautious travel. These new trends are reflected in OYO’s customer surveys. A lot of travellers across India prefer booking their stays closer to the date of travel. Nearly 26% said they book their stays only a week in advance, while 31% said they would plan their trips a month in advance.
Studying these consumer trends, Ankit Gupta – OYO Spokesperson said, “Customers are evolving at a faster pace than ever before, especially when it comes to travel. Of course, these are led by external factors that impact their decision making. According to the survey conducted by us,r over the past few months, travellers have shown increased aspirations to take trips and spend quality time with their families, friends or even solo. For the upcoming Holi weekend, we have seen a rise in bookings for leisure destinations, with a lot of the demand stemming from big business cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata among others. All the leisure destinations fall within driving distance or a short flight away from these destinations. This showcases the pulse of the Indian traveller today, who loves taking short trips and making the most of their breaks, even if it’s just a long weekend. To make this Holi memorable for our customers, we are offering stays for 2 days at a minimal flat price so that our customers can take that much-needed break without worrying about the small things.”


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Just about every maker of conventional software seems to be talking up plans to move to the cloud. Symantec, at least temporarily, is retreating on one front.
The Silicon Valley company, which has branched out into a number of fields from its early focus in antivirus software, plans to discontinue a service that allowed users to store backup copies of their files on Symantec servers.
Symantec recently informed resellers of the Backup Exec.cloud service that they have to stop offering annual subscriptions to the service by January 6. Customers can continue using the service for one additional year, but will no longer have access to the service or data stored on it after the same date in January 2015.
Why make such a move? Symantec offered a few reasons.
In a “frequently asked questions” document distributed to customers, Symantec cited increasing customer interest in capabilities besides just keeping precautionary copies of files online, specifically the ability to synchronize and share copies files with others, using PCs and mobile devices. Such functions are widely associated with the startups Box and Dropbox.
“The PC backup world is changing,” the company wrote in the document. “Customers want features such as synch & share and mobile access. Backup Exec.cloud was not designed with these features in mind.
“As a result, Symantec has decided to discontinue Backup Exec.cloud in order to focus on more productive and feature rich cloud-based applications which include this type of functionality.”
A spokesman for the company followed up with a statement Tuesday listing some additional motivations, including the desire to “align with our new offering strategy and efforts to streamline our product range to provide fewer, more integrated solutions for our customers.”
The company said it isn’t backing away from backup or cloud offerings, just refining them. “Symantec will continue to invest in its core backup and recovery offerings, including on-premise Symantec Backup Exec and NetBackup software and appliances, as well as innovative cloud-based storage, sharing and synchronization platforms,” the statement continued.
Despite such statements, some Symantec rivals were puzzled as to why the company would even temporarily reduce its involvement in such a seemingly important market.
“It’s a business that is growing very rapidly,” said Eran Farajun, an executive vice president of Asigra, a Toronto-based company that offers software for companies that provide data backup services. “Here is a one of the biggest names in backup that has decided to get rid of it.”
But Brent Thill, a UBS analyst, is swayed by the idea that Symantec CEO Steve Bennett simply wants to focus on fewer things.
“Symantec basically looked like a Las Vegas buffet–there was just too much,” Thill said. Bennett has decided to only keep doing what the company can do very well. “And if can’t be good, he is going to shut them down,” Thill said.
News of Symantec’s move was reported earlier by PC World and Bloomberg.


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Karnataka 2nd PUC Result 2019: The board exams of Karnataka have been completed and the evaluation process will commence soon. As the evaluaton process is going to be online, therefore, the result may be announced soon. The department of pre-university education has decided to enter the marks online. In this system, the marks will be entered on the online portal. Then, the marks will be approved by the senior authority.
From this year, the process of evaluation is online and therefore the steps involved in between will be eliminated. The marks will be uploaded directly on the server. This will be done by the evaluators by using their login id and password. The online entry of the marks will make the evaluation easier, faster and transparent. The process will also save the amount of time used in the resuIt declaration.
The exam was over on 18 March 2019 and the evaluation process has already been started from 21 March. In 2018, class 12 result was announced on 30 April. This year, the evaluation process is online so the students can expect the result in the last week of April. However, the result may be declared sooner than the last year. The result will be declared online on the official website karresults.nic.in. To get the result, the students need to submit their registration number.REGISTER FOR RESULTS UPDATES


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Yesterday at WWDC 2015 – Apple announced a bevy of new features and products and Drake was the pitch man in charge! Many of the innovation announcements rivaled competitive apps and technologies that are already available on Google’s platform, but that’s not stopping Apple from giving it’s annual WorldWide Developers Conference the highlight it deserves. It’s clear that Apple wants you all to themselves and isn’t interested in “playing nice” with the competition. Check out how Apple wants to change the way you live, work and play using their latest innovations below.
Apple Music Wants To Become Your Go-To Music Streaming Service
The biggest announcement of the day was Apple’s new streaming service, Apple Music. While many saw this coming… (remember that $3 billion Beats acquisition last year?) Spotify is years ahead with a loyal and budget conscious fanbase that refuse to lose.
Apple is releasing Apple Music for Android to give itself as wide an audience as possible while taking aim at Google Play consumers too. With its Beats 1 radio station, Apple is also going after Pandora’s radio audience and any other streaming service out there – Tidal included. (I’ll admit, I was a huge fan of Beats Music – so I’ll be especially interested to see what Beats 1 radio brings to the already crowded streaming table.)
Apple Music Connect Could Be The Next SoundCloud
(Avid SoundCloud user) Drake made a special appearance to highlight the “Apple Music Connect” feature including the launch of ocial music discovery. Soundcloud has been ahead of is competitors at connecting fans with artists, and it’s always been more of a social network/streaming service hybrid. Which is exactly what Connect is trying to be.
Apple Notes Update May Change The Way You Work
Notes has always been fairly light on features, but its revamp today puts it in closer competition with third-party organization apps like Evernote. Now you can draw sketches, make checklists, and add photos, maps, and websites into Notes. All things you can do on Evernote.
Read All Your Favorite Books, Articles And More With Apple News
Apple News has taken a few notes from competitor, Flipboard. Just like Flipboard, you can pick a list of publishers or topics to follow, and Apple News will provide a customized news reader. Apple News is “the best mobile reading experience ever,” according to Susan Bailey and with upcoming freebies like New York Times articles and more – it could change the way you consume daily news soon.
Are You Using Your Wallet Or Smartphone To Buy Your Next Purchase?
Apple introduced a robust Apple Pay expansion: It’s coming to the UK, it’s partnering with Pinterest for a new “buyable pin” program, and it’s partnering with Square on a payment reader. Apple also renamed Passbook “Wallet,” and are clearly on the way to replacing your vegan leather wallet with your smartphone – wallet could very well change the way you make purchases forever.
The Next Apple Update Could Have Your iPhone Predict Your Next Move
Siri wants to be the assistant you’ve always wanted and with a little help from Apple, it’s making its intelligent search even better with proactive assistance on iOS 9. This means Apple devices will now anticipate what you’re looking for based on context and make predictions about what you want based on your past behavior.
Siri will be able to set appointments and with an API for search, the proactive assistance feature will be able to pull information from contacts and apps on your device too.
New Yorkers – This Next Update Is For US! Apple Maps Finally Gets It Right!
Apple has a horrible track record with Maps, but its new public transit feature should appeal to commuters without cars. Instead of routing people to third-party apps, the iOS 9 version of Maps will provide public transit directions. Talk about a subway savior! Move over Google Maps – I think Apple may finally get it right!
Apple Wants To Help You Ditch Android For Good
It’s no surprise that Apple wants to get people to stop using Android, but yesterday’s announcement of ‘Move to iOS’ has just made it easier than ever. Available this Fall – ‘Move to iOS’ is an app designed to help people switching from Android to Apple. The app transfers contacts, message history, photos and videos, bookmarks, email, calendars, wallpaper, and DRM-free songs and books from Android to Apple, and suggests third-party apps to re-add.
With Apple Music being the biggest announcement of the day, it’s clear that music lovers everywhere are looking at their platform choices differently. Are you a Spotify or Tidal user? Would you consider Apple Music? Have any of these announcements made you more/less confident in Apple products? Share your thoughts below.


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Popular toys of the 70s
Since the 1920s, auto-show models have been hawking cars -- giving gear heads a little extra enticement.
One thing all auto shows seem to have in common these days are scantily-clad spokesmodels showing off the cars. But using sex appeal to sell cars dates back nearly as far as the car itself.
A New Orleans Police Department commander at the center of a controversial detail operation has been reinstated in full at the department, officials announced late Friday.


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VMware sees multi-device future on Horizon
Declares Post-PC era not happening, talks up 'UI virtualisation'
VMworld 2012 VMware has inched its vision of mobile computing forward, releasing an Alpha of a new product called the Horizon Suite that it hopes will make it easier to share apps and data among many devices.
Horizon Suite includes ThinApp, Horizon Application Manager, and Horizon Mobile, along with the apps-in-smartphone-sandboxes "Project Octopus" that VMware demonstrated at VMworld 2011. Those products now combine into a tool that make it possible to deploy virtualized apps to just about any device, thanks to a service catalog sysadmins can use to dole out apps to users.
One place it's possible to send those apps is iOS. The keynote speech today included a demonstration of apps being invoked inside a virtual machine on an iPhone, although cut and paste was not possible between the VM and other iOS apps. (We've got low-quality video here if you want a quick look).
The philosophical underpinnings for the suite come from VMware's belief, articulated yesterday by outgoing CEO Paul Maritz, that the Post-PC era is a misnomer. CTO Steve Herrod today proclaimed the PC alive, well, and likely to dwell among us for a goodly number of years. VMware is therefore keen to ensure that those charged with tending flocks of Windows and Mac OS machines have lots of ways to deploy and manage them more easily.
Herrod thinks there's an opportunity to do that in spades, as he quoted Gartner data saying 70 per cent of businesses are yet to move from Windows XP and Vista to Windows 7. Many will do so next year, Herrod stated, adding that he wants VDI to be ready to help.
To that end, Herrod also showed off the fruits of VMware's Wanova acquisition, in the form of a product titled Mirage that made it possible to remotely deploy Windows desktops to PCs.
The longer game VMware wants to play is delivering apps and access to data on whatever device a user cares to use at any given moment, which it calls the "multi-device era." The iOS demo mentioned above is one of its ways to shape that era.
Another is a pre-release technology it demonstrated called “user interface virtualization, which re-skinned Windows so that it made sense on a tablet interface. Windows' "recent documents" list was re-rendered as a set of ready-to-poke icons, while ALT-TAB to move between apps was replaced by cover-flow style swiping between oversized icons.
Such tricks certainly impressed the VMworld 2012 Day Two keynote crowd, no matter that many were doubtless suffering minor, liver-related inconveniences.
Yet the keynote also, in a way, showed how far VMware hasn't come in a year. Project Octopus wowed VMworld 2011 audiences. It may now be incorporated into a product with a real name – namely, Horizon Suite – but there's still no indication of when that will go on sale.
Herrod promised a beta late in 2012. Just when in 2013 VMware will go over the horizon remains to be seen. By the time it gets there, Microsoft's Windows to Go will have gone forth for several months and will have had its own chance to shape the multi-device era. ®


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A Lufthansa Airbus A319 airplane lands at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Roissy, near Paris, July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File PhotoDemand for both short-haul and long-haul remains strongon Thursday reported quarterly profits slightly above analysts’ consensus on the back of robust travel demand this summer and said bookings remained strong ahead of the busy Christmas holiday season.
Europe’s airlines have reported record quarterly profits as consumers have kept travelling despite a cost of living crisis, but the outlook has been clouded by rising oil prices due to conflict in the Middle East and risks of recession, hitting share prices.
Lufthansa reported third-quarter adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of 1.47 billion euros ($1.56 billion), up 31% year-on-year and slightly above average expectations for 1.43 billion in an analyst consensus published on the company’s website. headtopics.com
“Even though the geopolitical situation remains challenging, our booking outlook gives us reason to be positive – not only for a very good group result this year, but also beyond,” Chief Executive Carsten Spohr said.
Lufthansa said yields reached a record in the third quarter, 25% above the same quarter in 2019, and bookings for the fourth quarter were up by double-digit percentages year-on-year. Demand for both short-haul and long-haul flights remained high, especially among leisure travellers, it said, and the trend towards more bookings in pricey premium classes continued. headtopics.com
Thanks to that, the group expects to post a positive operating result for the fourth quarter, helping it achieve its aim of an adjusted group EBIT of more than 2.6 billion euros for the full year 2023.
Next year, Lufthansa expects capacity to increase further to around 95% of pre-pandemic levels, which should help it post an adjusted EBIT margin of at least 8%.South Korea’s Asiana Airlines said on Thursday its board had approved the sale of the company’s cargo business – an important step towards allaying EU competition concerns about a proposed takeover by Korean Air Lines . headtopics.com


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According to risk intelligence platform Cyble, Paytm’s e-commerce market unit Paytm Mall was hacked. Allegedly, a cybercriminal group calling itself “John Wick” can use the backdoor/administrator to access Paytm Mall’s entire database without restrictions. Cyble also claimed that the hacker was provided by an insider at Paytm Mall. In addition, according to the report, cyber criminals also demanded a ransom in the form of 10 ETH (approximately Rs 31.2 crore) in cryptocurrency. Paytm said it has not found any security vulnerabilities.
Cyble’s report stated that a suspected former cartel member who used the alias KelvinSec and belonged to a known hacker organization “John Wick” provided information about the hacker to the risk intelligence platform. Allegedly, the cybercrime group was able to upload backdoors/administrators in Paytm Mall and had unrestricted access to its entire database. The hacker is said to have gained access to the production database, which may contain information about all Paytm Mall accounts and other related information. Cyble also cited sources, claiming that the perpetrator said it was internal work.
The hacker group requested a ransom of 10 ETH, and the report stated that they were receiving the ransom from the Paytm shopping mall. The report also added that the perpetrators also posted information about Paytm Mall hackers on the Russian hacker forum.
Paytm stated that all user and company data is safe.
A Paytm spokesperson told Advertisement Shout: “As you would expect, we have invested heavily in data security. We have been investigating claims about possible hacking and data breaches, but have not yet discovered any security risks. We also have bugs. A bounty program under which we will reward responsible disclosure of any security risks.”
The spokesperson added: “We have worked extensively with the security research community to safely resolve security anomalies.”
Disclosure: One97, Paytm’s parent company, is an investor in Advertisement Shout.
This is the best true wireless headset under Rs. 10,000? We discussed this on the weekly technical podcast Orbital, you can subscribe via Apple Podcast, Google Podcast or RSS, download the episode, or click the play button below.


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Market is embarking on its latest collaboration with a colorful new collection.
The streetwear brand is releasing a collaboration with The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” album on Friday, continuing Market’s affinity for partnering with “cultural legends, iconic imagery and inspiring creatives,” according to the brand.
The unisex collection offers pieces such as jackets, T-shirts, sweaters, hats and other styles that give a nod to the original, colorful album artwork created by Heinz Edelmann. Styles are designed in a color palette of bright blue, yellow and red tie-dye and feature images of submarines and The Beatles’ band members.
“The Beatles were present in my youth — from their style and music to their lasting impact on pop music, art and culture,” said Mike Cherman, founder and creative director of Market. “Their unique spirit has brought generations together through music and art, so I couldn’t be more excited to bring this collaboration to Market.”
This is the latest collaboration to come from Market. The streetwear brand has recently teamed with brands and retailers such as Puma and Harvey Nichols, as well as bands like My Chemical Romance and TV shows like “The Powerpuff Girls.”
Last year, Market embarked on a new chapter, changing its name from Chinatown Market after announcing the company “did not consider what this name would mean to the communities in Chinatowns across the world.”
The Market x Beatles collaboration ranges in price from $45 to $250 and will be available on Market’s website and in select stores globally.


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Something sweet from Hudson has come to Cambridge.
Downtown Hudson’s New City Microcreamery has opened, currently with limited hours, a second ice cream and pastry shop in Cambridge’s Central Square.
“It’s a great location,” said Michael Kasseris, owner of New City Microcreamery. “We’re hopeful we’re going to be there for a long time.”
Kasseris, Karim El-Gamal and Jason Kleinerman had been kicking around the idea to open a second location for several months at the urging of several customers and friends. The partners were initially seeking to open a pop-up shop, but found an ideal location in Cambridge’s Central Square.
“We felt like it was a good place for us,” said Kasseris. “We felt Cambridge has that good neighborhood vibe. It’s got a rich history. The restaurants that open there are always on the cutting edge.”
New City – which first opened in May 2015 – makes its ice cream from scratch inside its open kitchen. Workers combine classic New England farm-fresh dairy with a first-of-its-kind modern liquid nitrogen process. The ice cream is made with milk from Mapleline Farm in Hadley and features ingredients like red wines, goats milk cajeta and fresh fennel to create surprising combinations of flavors.
Kasseris said the Cambridge shop is similar to the Hudson location, but is slightly smaller.
Though Kasseris said the new store’s menu is being kept under wraps, New City will offer a Cambridge spin to some of its flavors. Flavors currently offered at the downtown Hudson shop include classic favorites such as vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, as well as New City originals including key lime pie, sweet vanilla corn, strawberry cheesecake and vanilla bourbon.
“It is exciting,” said Kasseris. “Hopefully, we’re well received.”
Kasseris lauded New City’s fan base for the shop’s expansion.
“None of our growth would be possible without our support base in Hudson and MetroWest,” said Kasseris.
For more information on New City Microcreamery visit https://newcitymicrocreamery.com.
Jeff Malachowski can be reached at 508-490-7466 or email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @JmalachowskiMW.